City‑Arsenal in title showdown; Barça visits Rayo

A look at what's happening in European soccer on Wednesday:

ENGLAND

Manchester City and Arsenal meet at Etihad Stadium for a match that could go a long way toward deciding the Premier League title.

Arsenal heads to Manchester protecting a five‐point lead but has played two more games than City, the defending champion.

While Arsenal is on a run of three straight draws, City has won eight of its last nine games on a familiar‐looking end‐of‐sea‐ son charge.

There are four matches in total in the Premier League, with Liv‐ erpool and Brighton playing away to West Ham and Notting‐ ham Forest, respectively, as they look to keep alive their slim hopes of a top‐four finish. Chelsea hosts Brentford in the other game.

Yesterday, Wolverhampton's relegation fears were eased after a 2‐0 win against Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Tues‐ day.

A Joachim Andersen own goal after three minutes and a stop‐ page time penalty from Ruben Neves secured the crucial vic‐ tory at Molineux and opened up a nine‐point gap to the drop zone.

Julen Lopetegui's team quickly bounced back from the 2‐1 loss against Leicester on Saturday to move up to 13th in the table.

SPAIN

Barcelona continues its chase of a first Spanish league title since 2019 when it visits mid‐ table Rayo Vallecano.

The match comes after a home win against Atletico Madrid that ended Barcelona's three‐game winless streak and eased fears of a late collapse.

Atletico, still in the fight for second place, will try to rebound from the loss to Barcelona when it hosts mid‐table Mallorca. In a key match in the fight against relegation, 16th‐place Getafe hosts 17th‐place Almeria.

Last‐place Elche later visits 13th‐place Celta Vigo.

ITALY

Inter Milan and Juventus are locked at 1‐1 heading into the second leg of the Italian Cup semifinals at the San Siro. The winner will play either Fiorentina or Cremonese in the final.

Inter has Romelu Lukaku after his suspension was overturned by the Italian soccer federation in a "statement against racism."

Lukaku had picked up a second yellow card in the opening leg for provoking Juventus fans by holding his finger to his lips as if to silence the crowd after con‐ verting a stoppage‐time penalty equalizer.

However, Lukaku — who is Black — had been subjected to repeated discriminatory chants. Juventus will likely be without center forward Dusan Vlahovic, who has a sprained ankle.

Inter will also face city rival AC Milan in the Champions League semifinals.